UNIVtRSHY 

OF  CALIFORNIA,  SAN 

M  JOLIA 


BY    PHILIP    S.    MOXOM. 


California 

gional 

cility 


THE 


INDUSTRIAL  REVOLUTION 


A   SERMON 


BY    PHILIP   S.    MOXOM, 


Pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Church, 
Boston. 


PRINTED   IN   THE    WATCHMAN,   MAY    20,    1886, 
AND  PUBLISHED  BY  REQUEST. 


C.    H,    Simonds    &   CG.,   Printers. 
45  Temple  Place,  Boston. 


THE   INDUSTRIAL   REVOLUTION. 


"Think  not  that  I  came  to  send  peace  on  the  earth ;  I  came  not  to  send 
peace,  but  a  sword." — Matt.  10:  34. 

These  are  startling  words  from  the  lips  of  one  whom  prophet 
and  sacred  historian  have  united  in  naming  the  "Prince  of  Peace." 
What  did  Jesus  mean?  Did  He  mean  that  He  came  with  the  dis- 
tinct purpose  to  stir  up  enmity  and  strife,  and  to  turn  men  into 
Ishmaelites — every  man  with  his  hand  against  his  neighbor?  No. 
Yet  He  said  deliberately  that  He  came  "to  cast  a  sword  in  the 
earth.1"  There  are  two  thoughts  that  will  help  us  to  understand 
these  words  of  Christ. 

I.  The  coming  of  Jesus  into  the  world  introduced  into  human 
society  such  elements  and  forces  that  commotion  and  strife  wen'  in- 
evitable. 

His  own  relation  to  the  ruling  classes  and  the  ruling  ideas  of 
His  age  was  representative.  He  antagonized  the  traditions  and 
the  customs  of  the  dominant  classes.  His  ideas  of  religion  were 
revolutionary.  His  every  contact  with  the  life  of  the  time  was 
solvent  of  established  institutions.  His  teachings  were  a  chal- 
lenge to  the  law  of  "use  and  wont."  They  could  persist  only  by 
a  constant  overcoming. 

Strife,  then,  was  inevitable.  He  did  not  strive  nor  cry.  His 
method  was  silent,  without  observation  and  without  advertise- 
ment. It  was  the  method  of  the  sower  who  casts  his  seed  and 
leaves  it  to  the  nursing  of  sun  and  rain.  The  sphere  of  His  per- 


4  THE   INDUSTRIAL   REVOLUTION. 

sonal  activity  was  confined  to  Palestine,  geographically  an  insig- 
nificant corner  of  Asia,  and  His  public  ministry  covered  little 
more  than  three  years.  He  in  no  way  filled  the  role  of  a  political 
or  social  reformer,  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  that  term.  He  did  not 
openly  attack  evils  in  society  and  government.  For  example : 
Human  slavery  was  practised  in  most  cruel  and  revolting  forms. 
Jesus  said  nothing  about  the  abolition  of  slavery.  The  legal  op- 
pression of  debtors  was  so  great  that  the  creditor  (certainly  in  the 
days  of  the  Roman  Republic)  might  sell  the  debtor  into  hopeless 
bondage,  or  even  take  his  life.  Jesus  urged  no  change  in  the 
laws.  Liberty,  civil  and  religious,  was  unknown  and  undreamed 
of  among  the  masses,  and  the  individual  was  valued  merely  as  a 
factor  in  the  state — a  brick  in  the  wall.  Jesus  proposed  no  re- 
forms of  government.  Intemperance  was  a  prevalent  vice  through- 
out the  known  world.  Jesus  made  no  suggestion  of  prohibitory 
law,  and  did  not  even  inculcate  total  abstinence  except  inferen- 
tially.  The  people  of  every  land  were  wrapped  in  grossest  igno- 
rance and  superstition.  Jesus  said  nothing  about  popular  educa- 
tion. But  the  sayings  of  Jesus,  and  the  crescent  influence  of 
Jesus,  have  abolished  slavery  from  four-fifths  of  the  world,  have 
destroyed  debtors'  prisons,  have  made  laws  humane,  have  created 
the  civil  and  religious  liberty  of  modern  Christendom,  have  made 
society  temperate,  and  have  diffused  the  light  of  culture  among 
the  millions.  Jesus  of  Nazareth  is  re-creating  the  world.  This 
work  of  renovation  and  reform  in  human  society  has  been  a  con- 
tinuous struggle,  because  the  spiritual  ideas  and  forces  communi- 
cated by  Jesus  have  worked  through  human  agencies,  and  have 
faced  continually  the  brute  antagonisms  of  selfish  and  bestial  life. 
The  evolution  of  human  society  has  gone  on  through  strife  and 
carnage  and  unceasing  tumult.  Truly,  Jesus  "cast  a  sword  in  the 
earth." 

II.  Strife  and  commotion  engendered  by  the  teachings  of  Jesus 
have  always  worked  for  progress  and  peace.    Through  storm,  as 


THE   INDUSTRIAL   REVOLUTION.  0 

through  sunshine,  the  world  moves  forward ;  for  it  is  guided  by  a 
divine  purpose,  and  human  progress  reveals  the  evolution  of  a 
divine  thought. 

There's  a  divinity  that  shapes  our  ends, 
Rough-hew  them  how  we  will. 

There  are  no  contingencies  or  catastrophes  to  Providence. 
The  study  of  history,  in  its  large  scope,  is  a  discipline  in  faith. 
War  even  becomes  benign  to  him  whose  vision  is  broad  enough 
to  take  in  the  whole  field.  Social  ferment,  even  when  it  rises  into 
revolution,  is  not  ever  an  unmixed  evil.  Often  the  ferment  is  the 
sign  and  promise  of  great  good.  Truth,  like  a  soldier,  carves  her 
way  to  an  enduring  throne.  Peace  is  born  out  of  contention.  The 
purposes  of  God,  slowly  worked  out  in  human  history,  justify  at 
last  all  the  struggle  and  convulsion  by  which  history  is  marked. 
There  has  been  no  great  struggle  which  has  not  resulted  in  good. 
The  Crusades  depopulated  Europe,  but  they  checked  the  advance 
of  Mohammedanism,  and  delayed  the  fall  of  Constantinople  four 
hundred  years ;  they  developed  commerce  and  civilization  through 
the  contact  of  strange  races;  and  they  hastened  the  destruction 
of  feudalism.  The  French  Revolution  broke  the  spell  of  absolut- 
ism in  government,  and,  despite  the  temporary  reaction  caused  by 
its  excesses,  established  the  democratic  sentiment  and  principle 
in  Europe.  Our  own  last  war,  bloody  and  costly  as  it  was,  is  al- 
ready seen  to  be  worth  all  it  cost.  Out  of  the  sanguinary  and 
fratricidal  struggle  we  have  come  a  consolidated  nation,  with  a 
higher  appreciation  of  liberty,  and  a  more  assured  and  influential 
place  among  the  nations  of  the  earth.  Christianity  is  a  great 
agitator.  It  creates  ideals  that  breed  discontent.  It  wakens  aspira- 
tions that  move  the  hearts  of  men  as  the  sea  is  moved  by  the 
moon.  Every  great  social  upheaval  in  modern  times  is  due  in 
some  way  to  the  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ;  and  every  advance 
toward  a  higher  social  and  industrial  and  political  life  is  due  to 
influences  which  emanate  from  Him.  He  who  "cast  &•  sword  into 
the  earth"  proves  Himself  at  last  the  "Prince  of  Peace." 


fi  THE   INDUSTRIAL   REVOLUTION. 

We  are  now  in  the  midst  of  what  seems  to  many  a  great  social 
and  industrial  revolution.  Men  are  in  alarm,  as  though  the  foun- 
dations of  human  society  and  government  were  dissolving.  They 
fear  the  collapse  of  our  institutions  and  the  disappearance  of 
social  order.  But  this  revolution,  like  others,  will  reveal  itself  to 
be  evolution — the  rising  of  society  into  higher  form,  the  transient 
instability  that  precedes  a  more  stable  equilibrium  of  social  ele- 
ments. God  rules  and  guides.  Providence  does  not  rest  on  con- 
tingencies. Out  of  strife  will  come  good  to  all.  As  the  thunder- 
storm clears  the  atmosphere,  so  the  events  of  the  past  few  weeks 
and  the  weeks  immediately  before  us  will  leave  a  clearer  air  in 
which  society  will  breathe  with  increased  health  and  vigor.  Faith 
in  God  —  that  faith  which  works  by  love,  which  keeps  the  head 
clear  and  the  judgment  true  and  the  heart  calm — is  the  best  prac- 
tical philosophy.  The  timid  and  the  doubtful  are  always  expect- 
ing "the  end  of  the  world."  The  careful  study  of  history  reveals 
this:  that 

(1)  Discontent  prevailing  in  the  masses  is  a  sign  and  result  of 
increasing  intelligence.  Men  must  come  to  self -consciousness  and 
rise  to  a  perception  of  a  better  condition  than  the  actual,  before 
they  will  feel  discontent  or  put  forth  any  effort  for  improvement. 
Christianity,  in  promoting  intelligence,  promotes  discontent. 
Often  discontent  is  a  mixed  quality,  having  in  it  elements  of  mere 
bestial  uneasiness  and  selfish  passion.  Thus  there  may  seem  to 
be  individual  exceptions  to  the  principle  I  have  stated ;  but  these 
seeming  exceptions  do  not  invalidate  the  principle.  All  progress 
is  the  fruit  of  quickened  intelligence  by  which  something  better 
than  present  circumstances  is  conceived ;  and  with  the  perception 
of  a  possible  better  state  rises  the  impulse  to  make  the  possible 
actual.  Civilization  is  the  product  of  gradually  awakened  needs 
rising  into  consciousness  and  so  becoming  wants.  Discontent 
with  the  present  continually  pushes  men  on  to  larger  attain- 
ment. 


THE   INDUSTRIAL   REVOLUTION.  7 

(2)  Widespread  revolt  against  social  or  political  conditions  is 
the  result  of  a  developing  sentiment  of  justice  and  liberty.  The 
Christian  conception  of  the  individual  sooner  or  later  makes  every 
form  of  tyranny  irksome  and,  by-and-by,  intolerable.  That  con- 
ception destroyed  feudalism,  wrung  Magna  Charta  from  reluctant 
royalty,  and  inspired  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  The 
masses  of  the  people  are  not  a  kennel  of  hounds  that  must  be 
whipped  into  subordination  by  self-appointed  masters.  Human 
progress  is  continuous,  and  involves  the  whole  body  of  the  people. 
God  is  no  respecter  of  persons,  and  Christian  history  illustrates 
the  decay  of  favoritism.  The  "divine  right"  of  kings  has  gone 
into  the  limbo  of  outgrown  ideas,  and  the  divine  right  of  aris- 
tocracy is  going.  Government  passes  steadily  and  surely  into  the 
hands  of  the  many.  Industrial  organization,  as  well  as  political 
organization,  is  passing  out  of  the  control  of  the  few  into  the  con- 
trol of  the  many.  More  and  more  it  is  becoming  apparent  that  as 
government  is  to  be  by  the  many  for  the  many,  so  industrial  or- 
ganization must  be  for  the  weal  of  the  many — for  the  wage- 
earners  as  well  as  the  wage-payers,  for  the  operative  as  well  as 
for  the  employer.  Whatever  prevents  that  will  be  overturned. 
Absolutism  in  government  and  caste  in  society  are  unconsciously 
perpetuated  in  the  thoughts  of  men  long  after  they  have  disap- 
peared in  form.  Slavery  is  dead,  serfdom  is  dead,  feudalism  is 
dead,  but  the  attenuated  spirit  of  slavery  and  feudalism  still  lin- 
gers in  society.  The  sacredness  of  "use  and  wont"  still  exerts 
its  spell  in  an  enfeebled  degree  on  our  mental  habit.  But  nothing 
is  sacred  except  what  is  right,  and  nothing  else  will  endure.  In- 
dustrial organization  is  not  absolute.  Every  advance  in  intelli- 
gence and  morality  necessitates  modifications.  Laws  and  customs 
that  seem  just  to-day,  to-morrow  are  seen  to  be  defective,  and  the 
day  after  to-morrow  change  is  no  longer  optional,  but  inevitable. 
Gladstone's  thought  for  Ireland  marks  the  point  to  which  the 
whole  tide  of  English  opinion  must  rise.  Revolutions  never  go 


8  THE    INDUSTRIAL   REVOLUTION. 

backward,  because  revolutions  are  stages  in  the  great  divine  pro- 
cess of  human  evolution.  There  is  always  the  element  of  experi- 
ment in  social  and  political  changes,  but  progress  is  by  experi 
ment.  The  untried  must  be  attempted.  Men  make  mistakes,  but- 
in  the  long  run  mistakes  contribute  to  progress.  Human  passion 
and  blindness  rush  into  crime,  and  crime  is  expiated  by  bloodshed 
and  delay  of  progress ;  but  even  crime  teaches  lessons  that  make 
wise.  All  experiences  are  educational.  The  folly  of  men  brings 
scourging,  and  by-and-by  through  scourging  comes  the  sobered 
mind  and  chastened  purpose.  The  criminal  is  the  ally  of  des- 
potism and  the  foe  of  progress;  but  the  criminal  is  the  exception. 
Humanity  is  divinely  led,  and  man  grows  from  more  to  more 
through  the  shock  of  battle  as  surely  as  through  the  quietness 
of  peace. 

In  the  industrial  revolt  that  we  are  passing  through,  there  are 
evil  and  ominous  elements.  There  are  ignorance  and  demagogism 
and  anarchic  selfishness.  But  the  revolution,  as  a  whole,  is  not 
evil.  The  mass  of  the  people  is  sound  of  heart.  The  great  body 
of  American  workingmen  is  conservative  and  not  anarchical.  The 
present  disturbance  of  industrial  relations  will  result  in  good.  It 
is  not  causeless.  Right  is  not  all  on  one  side  in  this  struggle. 
Selfishness,  and  not  the  Golden  Rule,  has  largely  determined  in- 
dustrial and  commercial  relations.  Selfishness  has  crystallized 
into  certain  industrial  maxims  and  customs.  The  principle  of 
employers,  with  notable  and  noble  exceptions,  has  been,  The  most 
work  for  the  least  money.  The  principle  of  workmen,  with  praise- 
worthy exceptions,  has  been,  The  most  money  for  the  least  work. 
In  these  equally  selfish  principles  you  have  the  elements  of  an  in- 
evitable antagonism.  While  they  prevail,  society  cannot  have 
peace,  and  ought  not  to  have  peace.  They  produce  a  chronic 
state  of  social  war  and  spoliation.  But  as  Christ,  in  the  realm  of 
religious  thought,  is  dissolving  the  bondage  of  outgrown  dogmas, 
so  Christ  in  the  common  life  of  men  is  dissolving  the  bondage  of 


THE   INDUSTRIAL    REVOLUTION.  9 

arbitrary  and  outgrown  industrial  relations.  A  higher  morality 
is  struggling  into  being.  Out  of  the  strife  is  to  come  a  better  un- 
derstanding of  social  and  economic  questions,  and  a  more  humane 
adjustment  of  relations  between  man  and  man.  The  wild  vagaries 
of  communism  will  disappear  with  the  selfish  maxims  and  exclu- 
sive customs  of  a  commercial  aristocracy.  Men  will  learn  that 
liberty  is  not  absence  of  law,  but  free  conformity  to  just  law  ;  that 
rights  are  the  correlatives  of  duties ;  that  whatever  violates  the 
moral  sentiment  works  harm  and  only  harm  to  all  the  people. 

Some  things,  I  believe,  we  shall  learn.  And  the  speed  and 
thoroughness  with  which  we  learn  them  will  depend  on  our  fidel- 
ity to  the  highest  conceptions  of  truth  and  righteousness  which 
are  given  us  by  Jesus  Christ. 

(1)  We  must  learn  that  rights  are  not  the  exclusive  property  of 
privileged  classes.  Rights  belong  to  man  independent  of  his  par- 
ticular circumstances.  We  are  in  the  habit  of  talking  much  about 
"labor"  and  "capital,"  forgetting  that  "labor"  and  "capital"  are 
abstractions.  In  a  true  view  the  possession  of  wealth  or  the  want 
of  wealth  is  incidental.  "Capital"  has  no  rights,  but  the  man  who 
owns  capital  has  rights.  "Labor"  has  no  rights,  but  the  man  who 
has  strength  and  skill  to  labor  has  rights.  Behind  the  capital  is 
a  man.  Behind  the  marketable  labor  is  also  a  man.  These  men 
are  brothers,  having  mutual  rights  and  mutual  obligations.  The 
whole  question  of  industrial  economics  has  been  put  in  a  false 
light  by  the  identification  of  the  owner  with  what  he  has,  and  of 
the  worker  with  what  he  does.  Humanity  is  an  element  in  the 
problem  of  which  sufficient  account  has  not  been  made.  The 
workman,  or  "hand,"  as  he  is  called,  is  of  the  same  flesh  and 
blood  as  the  employer.  They  are  children  of  the  same  God :  they 
are  under  the  same  moral  laws.  The  workman  is  not  like  coal  and 
iron  which  the  employer  may  burn  up  or  wear  out  and  then  cast 
aside  at  his  pleasure.  On  the  other  hand,  the  employer  is  not  a 
legitimate  subject  of  spoliation.  As  belonging  to  a  common  hu- 


10  THE   INDUSTRIAL   REVOLUTION. 

manity  and  bound  by  a  common  interest,   the  one  can  lawfully 
claim  no  rights  which  do  not  as  much  belong  to  the  other. 

For  example,  if  merchants  or  manufacturers  have  a  right  to 
organize  into  corporations  or  "pools,"  to  conserve  and  enlarge 
their  gains,  laboring  men  have  an  equal  right  to  organize  for  the 
protection  of  their  industry  and  the  improvement  of  their  con- 
dition. Combination,  if  it  be  a  right  at  all,  is  just  as  impregnable 
a  right  on  the  one  side  as  it  is  on  the  other.  Many  have  been  slow 
to  admit  this,  but  the  admission  must  be  made.  In  England  the 
land-owners  and  manufacturers  for  many  years  refused  to  give 
labor  organization  any  legal  footing,  or  even  permission  to  exist. 
Happily  that  day  of  selfish  and  partisan  conservatism  has  passed. 
Let  the  laboring  men  organize.  Through  organization  they  will 
increase  their  intelligence  and  acquire  the  discipline  of  self-con- 
trol. Their  mistakes  and  misdeeds  do  not  destroy  their  right.  If 
at  first  they  make  very  grave  blunders,  or  even  are  led  into  posi- 
tive wrong,  the  fair-minded  man,  while  he  reprobates  crime  by 
whomsoever  committed,  will  remember  that  the  workingmen  have 
had  some  very  evil  examples.  Who  is  not  familiar  with  the  fact 
that  men  of  wealth  devoid  of  sensitive  conscience  have  created 
organizations  for  plundering  the  State  or  the  nation?  Who  does 
not  know  of  corporations  or  combinations  that  have  corrupted 
legislatures  and  purchased  courts  and  debauched  or  defeated  the 
agents  of  public  justice?  Who  is  unacquainted  with  the  practice 
by  a  certain  class  of  capitalists  of  forcing  bread  and  meat  and  coal 
up  to  fictitious  and  exorbitant  prices  at  the  expense  of  every  poor 
family  in  the  land?  Is  it  any  wonder  that  the  laboring  men  have 
been  too  much  influenced  by  the  bad  examples  so  long  before 
them?  Let  us  be  fair  and  calm,  and  face  facts  without  flinching. 
Scoundrels  and  robbers  among  capitalists  are  exceptions,  but 
these  exceptions  have  wrought  immeasurable  harm  to  commercial 
and  industrial  life.  Anarchists  and  incendiaries  among  working- 
men  are  also  exceptions,  but  these  exceptions  have  immensely 


THE    INDUSTRIAL   REVOLUTION.  11 

damaged  the  just  cause  of  labor,  and  are  a  constant  menace  to  all 
the  interests  of  society.  Let  us  not  forget  that,  as  the  majority  of 
capitalists  in  our  country  are  honest,  fair-minded  men,  who  wish 
to  do  right,  so  the  great  body  of  workinginen  are  neither  outlaws 
nor  enemies  of  the  social  order.  Were  our  country  in  peril  from 
a  foreign  foe,  a  million  of  them  would  spring  to  arms  in  a  day 
for  its  defence.  But  workingmen  have  rights  which  they  have 
been  slow  to  perceive  and  to  demand.  They  have  faults  and  limi- 
tations, too,  with  which  society  must  be  patient.  They  are  not 
represented  by  the  red-hunded  ruffians  who  committed  wholesale 
murder  on  the  streets  of  Chicago  last  week.  It  would  be  the  cru- 
elest  and  most  deplorable  injustice  to  hold  the  great  mass  of  our 
citizens  and  laborers  responsible  for  that  demoniac  work. 

Rights,  then,  attach  not  to  conditions,  but  to  men.  What  is 
needed  first  of  all  is  mutual  recognition  and  appreciation  of  com- 
mon rights  and  common  obligations. 

(2)  We  must  learn  the  real  oneness  of  human  interests.  Expe- 
rience has  taught,  at  least  is  teaching,  civilized  nations  that  op- 
pression of  labor  is  disastrous  to  capital.  A  notable  illustration 
of  this  is  the  economic  influence  of  slavery.  To-day  the  Southern 
States  of  our  Republic  are  advancing  in  a  career  of  industrial 
prosperity  such  as  was  unknown  and  impossible  while  slave  labor 
was  the  only  or  the  chief  producing  force.  But  every  modifica- 
tion, every  dilution,  of  the  principle  of  slavery  or  villenage,  works 
as  a  poison  in  the  blood  of  the  social  organism.  Capital  is  perma- 
nently safe  and  fruitful  only  when  labor  is  its  free  and  willing 
ally,  only  when  the  man  who  has  muscles  and  mechanical  skill 
works  in  fraternal  accord,  and  for  common  ends,  with  the  man 
who  has  dollars.  On  the  other  hand,  oppression  of  capital  is  dis- 
astrous to  labor.  Wealth  creates  and  multiplies  opportunities  for 
the  workingman.  The  laborer  who  ignores  the  conditions  which 
at  one  time  0r  another  limit  the  productiveness  of  wealth,  and 
who  demands  for  his  labor  more  than  a  just  participation  in  finan- 


12  THE   INDUSTRIAL   RKVOLUTION. 

eial  gains  will  admit,  not  only  makes  unjust  exaction,  but  also  he 
commits  the  blunder  of  killing  the  goose  that  lays  his  golden  egg. 

It  is  one  of  the  lessons  which  all  men  need  thoroughly  to 
learn,  that  labor  and  capital  are  not  natural  foes,  but  friends. 
They  cannot  exist  apart.  They  belong  to  one  body,  as  head  and 
hand,  or  as  hand  and  foot. 

Many  capitalists  as  greatly  need  to  learn  this  lesson  as  do  many 
workingmen.  The  possession  of  wealth  adds  nothing  to  the  sum 
total  of  a  man's  rights ;  nor  does  it  lessen,  but  rather  increases, 
his  obligations.  The  want  of  wealth  does  not  take  from  a  man 
any  rights  any  more  than  it  relieves  him  of  duties.  Society  is  a 
unit.  He  who  harms  it  is  an  enemy,  whether  he  have  one  million 
dollars,  or  one  dollar,  or  nothing.  In  the  interest  of  all,  robbery 
and  lawlessness  must  be  swiftly  and  effectually  suppressed.  In 
a  sense,  it  is  true  that  human  rights  are  inalienable ;  but  he  who 
disregards  the  rights  of  others  must  be  deprived  of  his  power  to 
work  mischief.  Society  must  lay  a  prompt  restraining  hand  on 
the  criminal,  whether  he  be  an  ignorant  Polish  murderer  in  Mil- 
waukee, or  a  well-fed  alderman  in  New  York  city.  A  society 
that  does  not  protect  itself  with  even-handed  justice  is  already 
leaning  to  its  fall. 

(3)  We  must  learn  afresh  the  responsibilities  of  ivealth  and  intel- 
ligence. The  New  Testament  principle,  that  the  strong  are  to  bear 
with  the  weak,  to  guide  the  ignorant,  and  to  help  the  incompetent, 
expresses  not  only  the  highest  morality,  but  also  the  thriftiest 
economy.  The  subtle,  habitual  enmity  that  to  some  degree  exists 
between  laborers  and  employers  is  a  heritage  from  past  genera- 
tions. It  is  the  faint,  far  echo  of  an  old  antagonism.  In  our 
country  the  social  problem  is  rendered  very  complex  by  the  fact 
that  our  people  is  not  homogeneous.  The  body  of  workingmen  is 
a  mass  of  heterogeneous  and  incongruous  elements.  Innumerable 
foreigners  come  here  who  not  only  do  not  understand  our  institu- 
tions and  laws,  but  who  have  positive  and  gross  misconceptions 


THE   INDUSTRIAL   REVOLUTION.  13 

of  them,  which  are  fostered,  if  not  produced,  by  unscrupulous 
immigrant  agents.  The  chief  peril  of  our  country  is  the  fact  that 
it  has  long  been  a  dumping-ground  for  European  offal,  as  well  as 
a  home  for  honest  European  industry.  The  antagonisms  between 
classes  which  exist  in  the  old  world  have  been  imported  into  the 
new.  America  is  inoculated  with  European  virus,  and  is  suffering 
in  consequence.  There  is  a  question  here  for  statesmen  to  deal 
with.  The  sentiment  in  favor  of  unlimited  immigration  is  in  dan- 
ger of  degenerating  into  a  sentimentality  that  ignores  great  prac- 
tical difficulties. 

But  aside  from  this  aspect  of  the  problem,  we  must  consider 
the  relation  which  the  employer  sustains  to  the  employe  under 
the  Christian  idea  of  life.  In  view  of  his  power  and  intelligence, 
on  the  employer  mainly  rests  the  responsibility  for  the  right  ad- 
justment and  beneficent  working  of  industrial  relations.  He  is 
usually  the  wiser,  and  he  must  be  a  true  teacher.  He  can  most 
speedily  affect  custom,  opinion  and  legislation.  Noblesse  oblige. 
If  capitalists,  instead  of  opposing  organization  among  working- 
men,  would  help  workingmen  to  organize  wisely ;  if  they  would, 
as  some  have  done,  seek  to  interest  themselves  in  the  mental  and 
moral  culture  of  their  employes  by  providing  them  with  practi- 
cal teaching  in  morals,  economics,  politics  and  history ;  if  they 
would  drop  out  of  sight  the  mere  cash  relation  between  them- 
selves and  their  "hands,'*  and  habitually  keep  in  mind  the  deeper 
relation  of  a  common  humanity, — much  would  be  accomplished 
toward  a  complete  settlement  of  labor  troubles.  Too  often  the 
employer  has  no  immediate  connection  with  his  employes.  The 
employer  is  often  not  a  man,  but  a  corporation,  which  administers 
its  business  through  an  agent  who  has  no  generous  interest  in  the 
workmen,  who  buys  labor  just  as  he  buys  raw  materials,  and  who 
ignores  any  obligation  beyond  that  of  paying  a  certain  stipulated 
price  for  a  stipulated  amount  of  labor.  Many  employers  have 
earnestly  sought  to  deal  with  their  men  on  a  true  Christian  basis. 


14  THE   INDUSTRIAL   REVOLUTION. 

but  they  have  been  handicapped  by  the  fact  that  the  majority  of 
employers  contemplate  the  cash-relation  as  the  only  or  chief  rela- 
tion between  capital  and  labor.  The  prevalent  habit  to-day  is  for 
employes  and  employers  to  meet  as  antagonists  instead  of  allies. 
The  workingmen  are  wrong  in  many  of  their  ideas  and  practices, 
but  the  employers  are  wrong  too,  and  upon  the  latter,  as  the 
stronger  and  better  informed,  rests  the  duty  of  leading  the  way 
to  conciliation  and  a  true  mutual  understanding.  The  principle  of 
arbitration  has  to  some  extent  been  adopted,  but  arbitration  is  only 
a  temporary  makeshift.  The  necessity  of  it  is  a  confession  of 
deep  disorder.  It  is  a  step,  however,  in  the  right  direction.  But 
employers  and  employes  must  meet  on  the  level  of  a  common 
humanity — not  as  lord  and  serf,  but  as  brother-men.  Working- 
men,  under  unwise  or  vicious  leaders,  have  themselves  made  con- 
cession and  conciliation  difficult.  The  labor  organizations  have, 
in  many  cases,  practised  a  usurpation  that  is  iniquitous  and  intol- 
erable. They  have  used  immoral  means  to  gain  an  end  that  may 
be  right.  They  have  been  tyrannous  to  laborers  as  well  as  to 
capitalists  They  have  sometimes  prejudiced  their  whole  cause 
by  folly  and  selfishness.  Still  the  employer  must  take  his  position 
as  the  helper  and  teacher,  under  the  Christian  law  that  the  strong 
shall  serve  the  weak,  even  as  the  mighty  God  serves  the  weakest 
of  His  creatures.  No  true  man  can  blink  injustice  or  tolerate 
crime.  Society  must  be  inexorable  in  maintaining  the  sovereignty 
of  law.  But  those  who  have  intelligence  and  power  should  put 
both  intelligence  and  power  into  the  service  of  the  many,  that 
through  the  diffusion  of  intelligence  and  hearty  good-will,  sound 
judgment  may  come  to  all,  and  that  the  bond  between  labor  :  nd 
capital  may  become  a  bond  of  mutual  regard  and  mutual  help  to 
common  ends. 

(4)  Finally,  all  men  must  learn  that  the  only  basis  of  a  stable 
society  is  moral.  Injustice  is  weakness,  by  whomsoever  practised. 
<  'rime  of  every  sort  is  never  an  individual  affair;  it  strikes  at  the 


THE   INDUSTRIAL   REVOLUTION.  If) 

security  of  the  whole  people.  When  laboring  men  commit  crime 
they  damage  their  whole  class,  and  they  damage  all  society. 
Xothing  is  gained  by  violence  or  by  fraud.  Only  in  righteousness 
can  there  be  peace.  Boycotting  is  a  dastardly  infringement  of  in- 
dividual rights.  The  destruction  of  wealth  hurts  the  workingman 
at  last  more  deeply  than  it  does  the  employer.  All  loss  is  paid 
for  by  the  many.  The  selfish  organization  cuts  its  own  throat. 
Laborers  and  capitalists  alike  who  use  unlawful  methods,  inflict 
most  deadly  harm  on  themselves.  The  outlaw  cuts  the  ground 
from  under  his  own  feet.  The  dynamiter  is  "hoist  with  his  own 
petard."  But  that  is  not  all ;  the  assassin  and  incendiary  is  the 
foe  of  social  order,  and  must  be,  will  be,  suppressed.  There  is 
no  deliverance  from  real  or  imagined  wrongs  by  the  path  of  crime. 
The  criminal  "runs  a  gauntlet  shot  across  by  God  and  man  at 
every  inch,"  and  he  must  fall.  The  stability  ami  prosperity  of 
society  is  more  valuable  than  the  interest  of  any  man  or  any  class, 
interpreted  from  the  individual  point  of  view.  The  moral  senti- 
ment gives  efficiency  to  law,  stability  to  commerce,  and  perma- 
nence to  liberty.  In  the  prevalence  of  the  moral  sentiment  lies 
the  security  of  the  Republic.  In  the  processes  of  law  and  in  the 
suppression  of  crime,  the  might  of  the  whole  people  moves  to  the 
realization  of  even-handed  justice.  The  country  is  safe.  Let  no 
panic  fears  flutter  the  hearts  of  the  people. 

"God  is  still  God,  and 
His  truth  shall  not  fail  us." 

We  are  prone  to  identify  national  prosperity  with  success  in 
producing  and  accumulating  wealth.  The  money-god  has  many 
worshippers,  and  this  worship  is  not  confined  to  the  rich.  We 
have  all  bowed  down  to  the  golden  calf.  But  the  strength  of  a 
nation  is  not  in  its  money,  but  in  its  men.  The  temporary  check 
to  commercial  prosperity  which  the  present  labor  troubles  cause, 
may  be  a  disguised  blessing.  We  shall,  perhaps,  think  less  of 
mere  cash  and  more  of  principles.  It  is  already  discernible  that 


If)  THE   INDUSTRIAL   REVOLUTION. 

political  economy  is  growing  humane  through  the  infusion  of 
Christ's  teachings.  Thinkers  and  writers  are  coming  to  see  more 
clearly  than  ever  that  the  ideal  of  society,  industrially  and  politi- 
cally, as  well  as  religiously,  is  the  realization  in  all  relations  of 
Jesus1  words,  "Whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  unto 
you,  do  ye  even  so  unto  them."  The  precepts  of  the  man  of  Naz- 
areth will  yet  be  the  corner-stone  of  our  constitution  and  laws, 
and  the  formative  principle  of  our  institutions.  An  ancient  writer 
said,  and  it  is  the  judgment  of  history,  that  "Righteousness  exalt- 
eth  a  nation,  but  sin  is  a  reproach  to  any  people."  Righteousness 
is  inseparable  from  philanthropy — the  love  of  man.  That  govern- 
ment is  most  just  which  is  most  humane.  Law,  liberty  and  love 
will  yet  be  synonymous  terms.  Meantime  let  us  lose  neither 
courage  nor  faith.  Providence  is  not  based  on  contingencies. 
He  who  said,  "My  Father  worketh  hitherto,  and  I  work,"  is  work- 
ing to-day,  casting  a  sword  into  the  earth  which  will  carve  out  an 
enduring  peace.  Let  us  be  calm,  and  fair,  and  patient.  Let  us 
trust  in  God.  And  "with  malice  toward  none  and  with  charity 
for  all,  let  us  do  the  right  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right,"  and 
out  of  strife  will  come  progress,  out  of  turmoil  will  come  "quiet- 
ness and  assurance  forever."  It  is  a  time  for  stalwart  Christian 
manhood  to  come  to  the  front. 

"God  give  us  men !    A  time  like  this  demands 
Strong  minds,  great  hearts,  true  faith  and  hands ; 
Men  whom  the  lust  of  [lucre]  does  not  kill ; 

Men  whom  the  spoils  of  office  cannot  buy ; 
Men  who  possess  opinions  and  a  will ; 

Men  who  have  honor ;  men  who  will  not  lie ; 
Men  who  can  stand  Iwfore  a  demagogue, 

And  damn  his  treacherous  flatteries  without  winking ; 
Tall  men,  sun-crowned,  who  live  above  the  fog 

In  public  duty  and  in  private  thinking ; 
For  while  the  rabble  with  their  thumb-worn  creeds, 
Their  large  professions  and  their  little  deeds, 
Mingle  in  selfish  strife,  lo !  Freedom  weeps, 
Wrong  rules  the  land,  and  waiting  justice  sleeps." 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


A     000  783  437     7 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

405  Hilgard  Avenue,  Los  Angeles,  CA  90024-1388 

Return  this  material  to  the  library 

from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


Univeri 

Soul 

Lit 


